Cooking with Books: Cafe Pasqual's Pupusas

I continue to try and recreate my recent and wonderful Santa Fe food experience here in North Texas. I have blogged before on my chile roasting/peeling/chopping adventures. And posted two delicious chile sauce recipes...both red AND green. But I knew it would take work to manage making the pupusas (a Salvadoran specialty) which I had at Cafe Pasqual's as a light dinner late one August evening. Luckily, chef Katharine Kagel has two cookbooks out that I used as mentor. This recipe comes from the second cookbook, titled simply Cooking with Cafe Pasqual's. I need a little more practice with the dough...my cakes were a little on the chewy side...but it's still a wonderful dish to try.

(A hint: The veggie filling is delicious in and of itself. With some leftover filling that I had, I stuffed a couple of bell peppers and baked for about 20 minutes with a little grated Monterey Jack cheese and crushed tortilla chips on top.)

Napo's Pupusas
Makes 6 servings.

2 cups dry masa harina
11 tablespoons olive oil
2 cups water
2 zucchini, grated
1/2 large white onion, grated
1 cup fresh corn kernels (cut from about two ears of corn)
1 cup green chile sauce
2 tomatoes, cored and diced into 1/2 inch pieces
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
3/4 cup grated Monterey Jack cheese

Place the masa into a bowl and add 2 tablespoons of the olive oil, mixing it with your hands.

When the ingredients are mixed enough to yield small meal, slowly add the water, incorporating into the masa mixture by rocking the heel and palm of your hand. (The dough will be sticky.) When all the water has been incorporated, refrigerate the dough, covering it with plastic wrap.

Put 2 tablespoons of the remaining oil in a large sauté pan over medium heat. When the oil is hot, add the zucchini, onion, corn, green chile sauce and tomatoes. Sauté the mixture for 5 minutes, then add the salt and pepper to taste. Remove the mixture to a strainer and drain the juices, pressing gently with the back of a wooden spoon to remove excess moisture.

To make the pupusas, cut 6 pieces of parchment paper into 16 inch by 6 inch pieces. Remove the masa from the refrigerator and form 12 balls of equal size. Place a piece of parchment paper on the work surface and use a brush to oil it lightly with olive oil. Place 2 of the balls near either and of the paper, then place plastic wrap over each ball. Find a flat round object measuring 4 to 5 inches in diameter. Press firmly over each masa ball to create a thin flat circle of masa, about 1/4 inch thick. Remove the plastic and place 2 tablespoons each of the vegetable mixture and the cheese in the center of one of the masa disks and spread over the surface. Using the parchment paper, fold the other disk over onto the first. Seal them by gently pressing down all around the edges. Repeat to form 6 pupusas. Keep the pupusas covered until ready to sauté.

On a hot griddle or nonstick saute pan, place 1 tablespoon of oil and brown each pupusa on both side, about 4 minutes per side.

Serve garnished with salsa and escabeche.